Hey Mark
.jpg)
Posted on 06/09/2005 9:56:44 PM PDT by buckeyesrule
Gym owners try to coax men into fitness classes
> By TAYLOR ANTRIM
New York Times
> Published on: 06/09/05
NEW YORK — When Martin Vahtra persuaded his wife to join New York Sports Clubs with him, he had hoped they would motivate each other to go regularly. He hadn't anticipated joining her for step aerobics.
"There were a lot of females in the class," said Vahtra, 43, an architect in Manhattan. "And there were these glass windows looking out on the rest of the gym. The guys on the weight machines were looking at me doing these silly moves to '90s house music. I felt like a weenie."
Vahtra stuck it out for another five or six classes, including one session that involved using hand weights. "The instructor actually said to me: 'You're the only guy in the class. You should be lifting more weight than that.' It was a really tough moment."
And that was it. Vahtra quit group fitness. "I'd pass by the big studio window, and there'd be a lone guy, tucked in a corner somewhere," he said. "I'd feel sorry for that guy."
To even the occasional gymgoer, it's clear that group fitness is a woman's world. Men account for only 9 percent of aerobics participants and only 7 percent of those who attend other classes set to music, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a trade group.
Men's aversion to gym classes reflects well known differences between the sexes. Just as some men dislike admitting that they took a wrong turn, many don't enjoy following an instructor's lead or feeling lost in a class. Rather than trying to learn a new discipline or complicated choreography, they fall back on the familiar: treadmills and weights.
Gym owners would like to see that change. To bolster their bottom lines, they are increasingly trying to coax men into the fitness studios. Members stay members longer if they attend classes, gym chains have found.
"My job is to get as many people off the floor and into a classroom as possible," said Rachel Sibony, a group fitness director for Equinox Fitness Clubs in Manhattan. "When I see a lot of guys in a class, I'm very happy."
But getting men to leave the weight room or the basketball court and step into the mirror-walled world of lunges and sky-blue hand weights is not turning out to be easy.
The man-to-woman ratio has improved a bit since the early '80s, when practically no men attended aerobics classes, said Jan M. Schroeder, the director of event programming for the Idea Health & Fitness Association, a national organization for fitness professionals.
"It was your younger female coming out of high school dance classes," said Schroeder, who is also an exercise physiologist teaching at California State University, Long Beach.
In the '80s and '90s group classes at gyms evolved, incorporating kickboxing, hip-hop dance and yoga. Today traditional aerobics classes are scarce. And "boot camp" classes featuring circuit and strength training — meant to be man-friendly — are prevalent.
Still, group fitness remains terra incognita for most men.
Justin Bishop, 28, a researcher at Vanity Fair, once took a yoga class at the Printing House Fitness & Racquet Club in Greenwich Village. "It was a small yoga class, and I was the only guy," said Bishop, who was new to yoga. "It was rather uncomfortable. I haven't been back since."
The source of Bishop's discomfort? "I wasn't cut out for it," he said. "Had it been something I was very skilled at, I wouldn't have had a problem."
Like many men, Doug Ramsay, a Web site manager in Washington, D.C., feels uncomfortable being a pioneer. "I was the only man, and there were probably nine or 10 women," Ramsay, 33, said of a toning class he recently attended at Bally Total Fitness. "I felt a little out of place."
He hasn't gone back. But he said that if the same class were, say, half male, he might.
The fear of being a token male has kept Elliott Blanchard, 29, a lawyer in Manhattan, from attending fitness classes at his gym. He sent a female friend to check out a cardio class that sounded interesting. "She reported that it was 100 percent women," Blanchard said. "That sort of swayed me against going."
The name of the class turns out to be an important factor in attracting men. Recently, at the 85th Street Equinox in Manhattan, Brazilian Tummy Tuck drew no men. Meanwhile, down at the Greenwich Avenue location, a similar class called Abdominals attracted over a dozen.
Carol Espel, the national director of group fitness for Equinox, pointed to several naming experiments that have drawn men: Golf Pilates (which had a popular run in Darien, Conn.), Ripped Abs & Arms (packed with men in West Hollywood) and Yoga for Athletes (available at the 92nd Street location in Manhattan).
"Typically, when men see words like 'athlete,' they're drawn in," Espel said.
Clubs like Equinox and Crunch specialize in creatively titled classes designed to draw the curious, but names can also have the opposite effect, scaring off class-wary guys.
"It's impossible to know from the names what you're going to be asked to do," Blanchard said. "Cardio Sculpt? What's that mean?"
Abdominals, boxing and spinning classes attract the most men, said Lisa Hufcut, a spokeswoman for Town Sports International, the parent company of the New York, Boston, Washington and Philadelphia Sports Clubs.
"Men feel more comfortable around equipment," said Hufcut, citing a new series of classes called Club Strength that the company developed with men in mind.
"From the warm-up to the work phase to the cool-down, it's all related to the act of weightlifting," she said. "There are no surprises."
Some instructors try to encourage the men in the hope that it will keep them coming back.
Marc Santa Maria, 36, a Crunch instructor in New York who teaches Bosu, a jumping-based class involving a prop that's half board, half ball, said, "If I see guys in my class that look like they play basketball, I'll say: 'This is your jump shot. Get up there!"'
For Tapio Vaskio, 37, a banker in Manhattan who ventured into an all-female dance class on Saturday, it was the instructor who put him at ease. "It was a completely new thing for me, so I probably felt a little more self-conscious," Vaskio said. "But the teacher made me feel comfortable."
Don't classes full of fit, spandex-clad women have natural appeal, particularly to a heterosexual guy?
"No," said Mark de la Vergne, 27, a traffic engineer in Chicago, who avoids the classes at his gym, Bally Total Fitness. "Having to worry about the girls staring at me, I don't need that."
Karl Bury, 34, an actor, added: "You don't go to yoga to pick up a woman. You're incredibly vulnerable." As one of a handful of men who attend a yoga class at the 85th Street Equinox, Bury has overcome five years of discomfort.
"I don't look around," he said. "It makes it easier."
Don't flater yourself, sparky.
"No," said Mark de la Vergne, 27, a traffic engineer in Chicago, who avoids the classes at his gym, Bally Total Fitness. "Having to worry about the girls staring at me, I don't need that."
ummm....ok
Hey Mark
LMAO!
Funny, when I live in South Florida, Bally's was considered the GAY gym!
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
